The Poisoned Tree
by rebmetpes-86
Summary: Lilly travels to Vancouver to investigate an 8 year old case of a grandmother thought to have committed suicide, but with new evidence that has surfaced, it is beginning to look a lot like murder...[Chapter 5 is up, please review if you can]
1. Prologue

**The Poisoned Tree: Prologue**

Disclaimer: The usual stuff. I don't own the original Cold Case characters, though not that many in here are mentioned.

Author's Note: This is my first time writing a Cold Case fic, or any sort of mystery/police/detective fanfic for that matter, so please bear with me. I'm just putting up the first couple of chapters to see whether or not you guys like it. (So please review). I don't know how realistic these situations would be, so I apologize in advance. I haven't seen enough episodes to know all of the background plots. This story could stand alone, but there are hints of Lilly/Scotty.

* * *

_August 3, 2004_

The door closed with so much force that the whole house shook. The young girl listened as the two garage doors opened simultaneously and two cars started, at slightly different times. Eventually the garage doors closed again. She watched her parents leave, their shouting still ringing in her ears.

As soon as the ringing died, she heard a new sound. The familiar pace of someone making their way up the carpeted steps.

"Vivien my dear." The voice came from her grandmother. "Where are your parents going?"

Vivien shuddered inwardly. That voice was so sweet and sugary it made her nauseous. Those eyes revealed nothing but innocence. But it was an act. It was always an act.

"….none of your business!" Vivien yelled. She pushed past her grandmother and ran down the stairs. She couldn't breath. She hastily zipped up her jacket and bent down to tie her shoes. She had to get out. But both the cars were gone. No matter.

Half an hour later Vivien got on board a bus. She didn't know, or care, where she was going. She had to get away.

It would be many hours under the silence of night before she returned, only to find a flashing police car in the driveway. Curious, Vivien took out her house keys and opened up the door.

She saw her parents and a policeman sitting in the living room. All three of them got up but were unable to find the words to say.

Without a word, Vivien slowly climbed up the staircase, listening to the familiar creaks and groans. She reached the upper landing, and saw a limp hand on the kitchen floor.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_Present Day, April, 2012_

Detective Lilly Rush walked into work to find Scotty Valens waiting for her with a stranger. "Hey Lilly, this is Detective Joseph Hammerson, detective from the homicide deparment in Vancouver, Canada."

"Nice to meet you." Lilly stepped forward and shook his hand. She studied Det. Hammerson. He was a tall and broad shouldered man, somewhere in his early thirties. His brown hair was swept up in a clean-cut hairstyle and he bore a friendly expression on his face, which also showed signs of weariness, probably after many years on the job. "So, what brings to you Philadelphia?"

"Your reputation has preceded you." Scotty said as a way of explanation. "The homicide department up North has heard of your name, as well as all the work that you've done."

"I just believe that no person deserves to be forgotten." Lilly answered politely and truthfully.

"That is why I have come, to ask for your assistance." Det. Hammerson had a deep and charming voice. "A cold case has re-surfaced in the region of Greater Vancovuer, and we were wondering if you would be willing to help solve it."

Lilly cast a sideways glance at Scotty.

"There will always be work for you when you return." Scotty assured her.

* * *

A couple days later Lilly left Philadelphia accompanied by Det. Hammerson. She had never been to Canada, much less Vancouver. It was a beautiful city, and the two found ample conversation topics on the plane.

They were greeted at the airport by one of Det. Hammerson's colleagues, a shorter and almost kid-like Det. Harold Jeromes.

"So, this is the legendary Det. Rush." Det. Jeromes shook Lilly's hand. "Welcome to Vancouver."

By the time Lilly had retrieved her suitcases and Det. Jeromes had located the car, the sun was beginning to set. It gave way for a breathless scene as they travelled from the airport, the sun setting slowly below the horizon, contrasted with the emergence of glowing streetlights.

"This is a beautiful city." Lilly commented out loud for the first time.

"Yes it IS a beautiful city." Det. Jeromes agreed. Lilly swore she saw him give her a little wink in the mirror. "It rains for about three quarters of the year. But we're all used to it."

"And it's Sunday, so the traffic is good." Det. Hammerson added.

Half an hour later Det. Jeromes pulled up to the hotel.

"We'll let you get settled in, and we'll pick you up bright and early tomorrow morning. How does 8:30 sound?" Det. Hammerson helped ILlly take her suitcase out of the trunk.

"What is the case about?"

"A grandmother was found dead in her house eight years ago."

"That's it? Then why is this case resurfacing now?"

"I'll let you try and figure out why tonight." Det. Hammerson gave a smile to Lilly, but somehow that smile seemed to contain some uneasiness. "Tomorrow, all shall be revealed. Sleep tight, Det. Rush."

Lilly almost stuck her tongue out at the two men was they drove away. They were almost like little boys, and for some reason Lilly already felt totally at ease conversing with them. She wished they didn't have to go, she was dying to hear more details about the case.

Obviously that would have to wait. Tomorrow was another day.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Rise and shine." Det. Hammerson said cheerfully the moment Lilly opened the door. "Sleep well?"

Lilly tried her best to glare at the detective. "No, you kept me wondering all night. How could a case like that run cold? What's different now?"

"That's the beauty of it." Det. Hammerson said quietly. Suddenly, his voice had become less cheerful. "I promise, all will be revealed when we reach the office. At least, everything that we know."

The office was plain and simple, remind Lilly of her own Philadelphia office.

"Hey, there she is." Det. Jeromes immediately got up from his chair. Lilly almost expected him to give her a slap on the back, but none came. "How was your first night in Vancouver?"

"I'm just ready to dive into the case, do what I can." Lilly said honestly.

"Let me introduce you to the team. Here is Det. Robbie Ramones, resident hacker and address/person finder." Det. Jeromes was talking almost a mile a minute. "And over there is Det. Johnny Stelleto, he knows all the stuff that goes on in the city."

"Pleased to meet you." Lilly shook the two detective's hands. She noticed that once again, she was the only female in the room. But that didn't bother her, and it certainly didn't seem to be bugging any of the other guys too.

"Right, so I guess you'll be wanting to hear about the case, am I right?" Det. Jeromes asked.

Lilly nodded.

"So this tale began 8 years ago, in 2004, in a quiet neighbourhood. The whole Wong's family had gone out for the day, the parents separated from their 18 year old daughter. The only one that was home was Mr. Wong's mother. It would be several hours, quite late at night before Mr. and Mrs. Wong returned home to find the grandmother dead on the kitchen floor."

"Autopsy revealed that the grandmother had died due to an overdose of pills. Most likely Tylenol 3." Det. Hammerson added.

"Tylenol 3, don't you have to have a prescription for that?" Lilly inquired.

"Yes you do." Det. Stelleto agreed. "But Vivien, the 18 year old daughter, had gotten her wisdom teeth removed the year before, and received that prescription from her dentist to help ease the pain. She only took a few pills from the whole bottle."

"So naturally, it was thought that the grandmother, Lin Pei Chan, had taken her granddaughter's leftover pills, committing suicide. So case was closed, that was it."

Lilly gave Det. Jeromes a wondering stare. Everything seemed fairly logical to her so far. "So let me guess…you guys think it wasn't suicide?"

"Turns out Vivien is somewhat of an aspiring writer." Det. Ramones sat on the edge of a desk. "Most of them are short stories, poems, pretty good ones I might add. But six months ago, she managed to publish this." He handed Lilly a paperback.

"Skeletons in the Closet." Lilly read the title, and then quickly scanned the back cover. "Big on family secrets, huh?"

"Well, on the surface it seems like a story based on a young girl's ramblings about her own life. It's had a surprising amount of success; apparently there are a lot of people that can relate to the book, or at least the emotions of the girl."

"What caught my attention at least, was what the ramblings were about." Det. Ramones continued.

Lilly was slowly catching on. "A grandmother?"

"Yep."

Lilly understood. "So I guess it seems a bit suspicious after all this time Vivien managed to publish a book possibly about her grandmother. One that potentially reveals all of the hostility and anger towards her."

"That is exactly what we were thinking." Det. Jeromes agreed.

"I also did a little research on her." Det. Ramones said. "Right now Vivien is a med student at the University of British Columbia, just got into residency."

"So any person who was able to get into med school would have had to have a fair bit of ambition and determination." Lilly was starting to fill in the blanks. "With all that anger inside of a normal teenager with that kind of ambition and determination? That may just be a deadly combination."

Det. Stelleto nodded grimly. "And perhaps it was very likely that somehow Mrs. Chan was in the way, and Vivien could see no other alternative but to get rid of her. Permanently."

"However, at this moment we have no solid evidence, only theories." Det. Hammerson spoke up for the first time. "We've interrogated, but so far we've come up short."

"Maybe the best way to take a step forward, is to take a step backward." Lilly suggested.

Det. Hammerson seemed to know exactly what she meant. "Well in that case, I'd say you'd better come and interview our start suspect."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Lilly and Det. Hammerson stood at the skytrain station, watching all of the arriving people for any signs of Vivien.

"Well, Mrs. Wong did say Vivien would be here around this time." Det. Hammerson checked his watch again. "Give or take half an hour."

Every so often a train would pull into the station and the two detectives would carefully scan the crowd. Det. Hammerson was scanning for Vivien's familiar face. Lilly was trying to think of what she looked like.

A few minutes later Lilly felt someone poke her arm. "There's our girl." Det. Hammerson whispered in her ear.

Lilly raised her head and looked in the direction he was hinting at. In the distance, Lilly saw a young woman walking in their directly. She certainly didn't seem to resemble the picture that Lilly had created in her mind, but they never did anyways. Vivien was about 5'8", and had on a pair of black dress pants and matching black shoes. She also wore a black coat hiding a nice blue shirt, and a messenger bag bounced back and forth on her leg as she walked. Det. Hammerson waved. Vivien seemed to be a little surprised, but she still waved back and continued to walk towards them.

Lilly blinked and saw the 18 year old Vivien walk up to them. Glasses, long black hair tied up in a ponytail. Her face was pale, and her eyes were worn and tired. A grey wind breaker, worn sneakers, blue jeans and worn backpack. Her smile was polite. A split second later the 26 year old returned. Her hair was fashioned din a shorter, more sophisticated hairstyle, her face was thinner and better coloured, but the same weariness still remained, behind a different set of glasses.

"Hello, Ms. Wong." Det. Hammerson spoke first. "I believe you still remember me. This is my friend, Det. Rush. She's lending us her brains for this case."

"Pleased to meet you." Vivien said politely as she shook Lilly's hand. "Though I already know what you think of me. You think I did it."

"Well, we just want to discover the truth." Lilly replied. "Regardless of what that truth may be. We want to ask you some questions."

Vivien glanced around, almost uneasily. "Would you mind if we went to a coffee shop that I know, just around the corner? It's been a long day."

Vivien took a long sip from her coffee. "Ahh…that's the stuff. Now, what questions do you want to ask me? I'll be happy to help in any way that I can."

Lilly made a mental note of this. She understood now that perhaps Vivien had another qualification for getting into medical school. Sitting across the small table, Lilly couldn't help but feel an air of confidence from her, but without any arrogance. Around Vivien, one would have felt at ease, like no matter what happened, somehow everything would be alright. It was a reassuring feeling.

"Could you please tell us again, what happened that night on Aug 3, 2004?" Lilly asked, flipping open her notebook, pen already in hand. She vaguely noticed that Det. Hammerson had done a similar thing.

Vivien slowly began. "It's been 8 years, and I can still remember everything almost as clear as day. My parents had a huge fight earlier that afternoon. About the same thing, it was always about the same thing. But I had never heard anything as bad as this before."

_An 18 year old Vivien hums absentmindedly to herself as she reads a novel in her room. Her eyes look up, and she cocks her head to one side. Angry voices are heard. She closes her book and climbs off her bed. Opening the door, the sounds can be easily heard._

_"I'M NOT A DEMANDING PERSON WILL! When your mother came to live with us, I didn't ask anything out of her! She didn't, and still doesn't have to do any chores, or cook, or clean or anything like that! And she has the nerve to make more work for me?"_

_"What do you want me to do, Cindy?" Vivien's father sounded worn out. "I've tried to reason with her a million times. The day I actually get through to her is the day that I win the lottery!"_

_"Honestly, your mother has done nothing but criticize the minute she moved in with us…or rather, the minute we got married!" Mrs. Wong's voice was increasing dangerously. "Has she done anything to help raise Vivien? NO! I did that on my own!"_

_"What do you want me to do then?" Mr. Wong yelled, almost helplessly._

_"Sometimes if it weren't for Vivien, I would have left a long time ago. I can't stay here anymore! I've got to get out of here!"_

_"Fine with me! I need some space too!"_

_A few minutes later the whole house shook with the force of the closing garage door._

"So your parents both took off separately?" Lilly questioned. "Where did they go?"

"Beats me." Vivien took another sip of her coffee. "They got home before I did."

"Where did you go?"

"Away, out of the house. I had to get out of there too."

_The bus doors opened and Vivien inserted her pass into the machine. _

_The bus driver noticed her red eyes. "You okay kid?"_

_Vivien nodded, blinking rapidly to fight back the tears. She walked past and found an empty seat at the back of the bus, watching the scenery roll by. She got off at the mall._

"I didn't come back home until really late." Vivien explained. "'That was when I noticed that my parents were home and that the police had been called. My grandmother was already dead."

Lilly studied Vivien carefully. There was a certain coldness there, a child that had shied away from emotion. Maybe for a reason.

"You said you were quite home late." Det. Hammerson inquired. "Surely you couldn't have spent all that time at the mall?"

"I came back and hung out at my friend's house." Vivien said simply. She checked her watch. "I am terribly sorry, but I have to be going. I live on campus now…I just came back home to have dinner with my parents."

"Sure thing. Det. Hammerson handed Vivien a card. "Thank you for your time. If you know anything else, you know what to do."

Vivien nodded as she got up and left, tucking the card into her pocket.

Lilly sighed. She had a feeling it would take a lot of work in order to get Vivien to open up.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Hey, I dug around the old case file." Det. Stelleto said to Lilly the next morning. "Turns out Vivien has at least somewhat of an alibi. On police records is one of her friends, Steven Lassino, who said that she spent some time at his house on the night of the murder."

"Any information on his whereabouts?"

"Work address, don't know if it's still valid."

Lilly and Det. Hammerson exchanged a look. "It's a start."

* * *

"Steven Lassino?" The girl at the front counter wrinkled her brow. "Well, I can tell you right off the bat that he hasn't worked here in quite awhile. I've been here for three years, never remembered any guy by that name." 

"Well, we know for sure that he worked here 8 years ago." Lilly said. "So if you have any old employee records, with any information, that would be very nice."

The clerk nodded. "I'll see what I can do." She got up and walked into a back room.

Lilly and Det. Hammerson surveyed their surroundings. "Atlas Roofing Company…." Lilly read from the card she had taken from the counter. The main office was plain and simple, white walls, white counters, old chairs and old magazines. None of that really mattered, not like anybody ever seemed to visit in person.

The clerk soon returned. "Yes, Steven Lassino has records here. I've copied this last known home address for you." She handed Det. Hammerson the photocopy.

"I wouldn't try that address, only his parents are there now." A rough voice spoke up.

Both Lilly and Det. Hammerson turned towards the voice. A magazine lowered to reveal the kind face of a man in his mid-forties. There was a slight youthful expression, but grey streaks were starting to appear in those brunette locks.

The man got up and walked towards them. "My name's Geoffrey Smith."

"I'm Det. Hammerson, and this is Det. Rush." Det. Hammerson introduced the two of them.

Lilly shook Geoffrey's hand, and when she blinked, the man had grown younger. His face was thinner, the grey streaks had disappeared, and his eyes contained more life.

"I hate to be so nosy, but I couldn't' help overhearing your inquiries about Steven." Lilly blinked again, and Geoffrey had aged 8 years.

"You got something that could help?" Det. Hammerson inquired.

"May I?" Geoffrey took the piece of paper from Det. Hammerson. "He moved out several years ago. We still keep in touch, so I know where his apartment is. If you can't find him, he's probably at work, and you'll have to ask his parents for that location." He scribbled the address in an almost illegible handwriting and gave the sheet back to Det. Hammerson.

"Thank you." Lilly turned to leave, but something held her back. A third opinion could prove to be useful.

It was almost as if Geoffrey had anticipated Lilly. He hadn't moved an inch.

"I was wondering if you would be willing to answer a few questions, Mr. Smith." Lilly inquired.

The man almost grinned. "I'll answer whatever questions I can."

The three settled into the chairs in the waiting room.

"So, what can you tell me about Steven?"

"Nothing but praise." There was a twinkle in Geoffrey's eyes. Memories were flooding back to him. "He was only 18 when he first came to work for us, so we nicknamed him as 'The Kid'. Green as hell. But he was a hard worker, fast learner. Good kid."

"He had a friend…Vivien Wong." Det. Hammerson said simply.

Geoffrey wrinkled his eyebrow in thought. "Vivien…oh yes of course. The girlfriend!"

**A/N: Sorry I haven't updated for so long. Schoolwork is making me as busy as heck. I already have an ending in mind…but as to how the story will get there still remains unknown. I hope that you will read and review this story…any sort of review/criticism is welcome! Thank you!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Lily raised her eyebrows in mild surprise. "The girlfriend?"

Det. Hammerson looked a little uneasy at the news. "They were going out at that time?"

Geoffrey chuckled again and stretched. "Nah, but us guys teased him about that because she was the only girl that seemed to be really close to him. They weren't boyfriend and girlfriend but they sure acted like that sometimes though they'd be the last people on earth to admit it. A bit of puppy love if you ask me."

Lily had to smile at that. "So, I'm assuming that you've met her?"

Geoffrey nodded. "Yup, through him of course. Actually brought her to the workplace once. Came around lunchtime, he was gonna leave early, go see a movie with her, that sort of thing."

"When was this?"

"Let me think….end of July I say. Or maybe the second last week. That was the time of the cooler weather in the midst of the heatwave wasn't it?"

Det. Hammerson nodded. "What was your impression of her?"

Geoffrey blinked a few times, trying to hide the uneasiness in his eyes. "She was a wonderful girl. Just wonderful."

"Except…?"

"Except there always seemed to be some big dark secret bothering her. And that's what made her close herself off to the rest of the world."

_Geoffrey walked up to Vivien sitting under the big oak tree in the front lawn. "Mind if I join you?"  
She looked up at him and smiled. "Don't you have to work or something?"__  
Geoffrey shrugged and sat down beside her under the shade. "I'm on my break. Besides, it looked like you could use someone to talk to."  
__Vivien laughed and looked down the street. "I'm an only child so I don't need to have a constant flow of conversation to survive."  
"I didn't mean that. You were staring off into space and looking insanely sad."  
__"Insanely sad eh? That's a combination of words I haven't heard before."  
__"And now you're using sarcasm to cover that up."  
__She turned back her head and stared blankly into his eyes. "It's nothing. It's just…nothing."  
__Geoffrey opened his mouth to say something else but quickly changed his mind and closed it as he saw Steven approach the two of them.  
__"Hey." His voice was soft and friendly. "What have you guys been talking about?"  
__Vivien and Geoffrey exchange a quick glance. "Nothing," she finally said. "I was just thinking about some stuff, that was all."  
__"Stuff? What kind of stuff?"  
__"Just…stuff."  
__"Are you thinking about that guy again?" Steven demanded. His crossed his hands and stood back, waiting for the answer.  
__Geoffrey was intrigued. "What guy?"  
__A look of annoyance crossed Vivien's face. "I'm not. That wasn't what I was thinking about. And what if I was? Why would you care?"  
__"What kind of question is that?"  
__"Forget it. I don't want to talk about it anymore." Vivien stood up and walked off.  
_

"Wow, that was pretty sudden of her." Det. Hammerson commented as he scribbled down notes.

"You're telling me." Geoffrey agreed. "She just got up and left, leaving me and Steven in the dark. He chased her down a few minutes after that. She wasn't mad at him, but it sure put a dent in plans because she left by herself soon after that."

"Any idea who the other guy was?" Lily pressed on.

Geoffrey slowly shook his head. "Not really…I had just met the girl that day, not like she was going to tell me right off the bat what her personal life held."

"It could have been another guy that held a flame for her. Do you have ideas of that?"

Geoffrey shifted a bit uncomfortably in the hard cushioned chair. "I don't know how relevant this is…I don't even know if I heard the truth. But from what I've been told…I daresay Andrew held a flame for her back then."

"Who's Andrew?"

"Steven's younger brother."

Det. Hammerson let out a low whistle and leaved back in his chair. "Classic."

The dots were slowly being connected in Lily's mind. "Was Steven ever the jealous type?"

Geoffrey shook his head slightly and shrugged. "Everybody gets jealous once in awhile, he didn't seem to do anything out of the ordinary in regards to that. I'm embarrassed to say this, but even after all these years, there are many times when I feel like I still don't know that kid. Whatever happened between them, he seemed pretty hurt by that."

That was all Lily needed to hear at that point. "Thank you Mr. Smith." She said as she stood up and stepped forward to shake his hand. "We'll be in touch."

"Sure." Geoffrey took Lily's hand and gave it a firm shake. "Hope I will be of some help."

"So Vivien seemed like a bit of a dark person back then." Det. Hammerson commented quietly to Lily as the two of them pushed open the glass doors and stepped into the warm afternoon sunshine.

"Yeah…" Lily cast a backwards glance at Geoffrey through the glass, swaggering off to a back room. "And if a stranger saw that kind of potential trouble and darkness within her, what would her friends and family have seen?"

* * *

It was a sprawling white rancher that lay on a corner lot surrounded by an even more impressive green lawn. At least it would have been if the premises hadn't been transformed into a mini-construction site. Thick white sheets were spread out everywhere, a huge dumpster full of scrap wood took up a good half of the driveway. Guys no older than forty raced around the rooftop as easily as Spiderman skipping over skyscrapers.

Det. Jeromes gave Det Stelleto a look a checked the address he had written on a piece of paper. They had contacted his apartment only to find nobody home and had to resort to calling up his parents to find his latest work address and location. Even then it had taken some effort to persuade them that no, their eldest son was not in danger or in trouble of any kind; they just wanted to ask him some questions. They better have given the two of them the right worksite address.

One of the guys on the ground noticed the two detectives and walked over to meet the two of them. "Can I help you?"

"Yes actually you can. I'm Detective Stelleto and this is Detective Jeromes. We're looking for a Steven Lassino."

"STEVEN!" the guy hollered to the guys running around the roof. "THESE GENTLEMEN ARE LOOKING FOR YA!"

"Alright Dan!" a guy hollered back. "Tell them I'm coming!" He packed the tools into his belt, scaled down the ladder and jogged over to meet the two detectives. Compared to most of the workers he was a scrawny little kid in faded black clothes, glasses, and matching dark hair. The two detectives blinked and the kid had grown. He was a taller, a little more muscular, the glasses were gone and he sported dusty jeans and a fitted white t-shirt. The same dark hair was now matted by sweat to his forehead. "I'm Steven."

"And we're Detective Stelleto and Jeromes."

"I'd shake hands, but you probably wouldn't want all that dust and dirt."

"This better not be to talk about your girl." Dan gave Steven a little wink and a nudge.

Steven rolled his eyes and pushed his co-worker away. "Yeah why don't you just keep your mouth shut and go off and actually do some work." Dan stuck out his tongue at Steven before swaggering off.

"Right. We're here to ask you some questions about the murder of Lin Pei Chan." Det. Stelleto flipped open his little black notebook.

"Murder? You mean it wasn't suicide?"

"We've got a new angle now." Det. Jeromes stated. "In our files it lists you confirming Vivien spent some time at your house the night of the murder."

"You waited all these years to ask me to confirm that?"

"We just want to make sure all possibilities are covered."

"It's the book Vivien wrote isn't it?"

Det. Jeromes stared at Steven for a few seconds.

"Alright, as I told the cops the first time around, she did spend some time at my house the night of the murder. I don't really see why it would be relevant now."

"What do you know about Lin Pei Chan?" Det Stelleto continued. "And not from what you read in the book."

Steven shrugged. "Not too much really. Real…quiet reserved kind of character. She never went out of the house from what Vivien has told me, so I never really saw her. In the end it was probably better that way."

"Why do you say that?"

Steven crossed his arms and stared at the ground, shifting his weight between his legs. "Vivien doesn't really like people knowing this…but if I can be frank…"

"By all means, go ahead."

"I don't know exactly what kind of person her grandmother was, but from what I know and can feel, she did some horrible things. She really screwed up her grandchild. And I hated her for that, because I couldn't find a way to help her."

_Vivien is sitting on the worn black couch in the living room. The television is on and playing various videos on MTV, but Vivien has her head back and is staring aimlessly at the ceiling instead. Steven enters the room with two glasses of Coke._

_"You know, if you really wanted to you could just switch off the TV and stare at my ceiling." He says as he hands her the glass.  
"Thanks for the Coke. And no, you left it on this channel so I'm not touching the remote." Vivien takes a sip and sighs. "I'm sorry; I know this is the second time this week I've come over here. I just couldn't stand to be home right now."  
__"Hey, don't worry about it. That's what friends are for." Steven sat down on the space beside her and the two of them stare at the screen together. "You know…if you ever want to talk about what goes on at home…you know I'm right here."  
__"Thanks, but I don't know where to start…it's complicated."  
__"You sure you don't want to talk about it?"  
__"I'm sure."  
__"You sure?"  
__"Yes I'm sure. Please stop asking."  
__Steven glanced up only to notice a form creeping behind the corner. "What's wrong with you Andrew? Why do you have to sneak around here like some bum?"  
_"_Do you mind if I come and join you guys?" Andrew asked timedly.  
_"_Get out of here now!" Steven picked up a pillow and threw it at his brother, but Andrew easily dodged out of the way.  
_"_I know more than you do." Andrew taunted before he disappeared. "Loud words and actions won't get you everywhere."  
_

"Who was Andrew?"

"My younger brother." Steven replied. "Always hung around in the shadows whenever Vivien was over. And yet somehow that got them closer together than I was with her. In the end he knew more things about her than I did."

"So he would have known more about her grandmother than you."

"Look, all I know is that Vivien disliked her grandmother with a passion."

"And your brother?"

"He was madly in love with her."

"How does that help us in our investigation?" Det. Jeromes asked.

Steven took a deep breath and looked down at the ground. He looked back up a few moments later and stared at the two detectives straight in the eye.

"Because he would have done anything for her. And I mean anything."

* * *

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews I have received so far! Hopefully I can a few more chapters up before my Winter Break is over…cross your fingers I guess, but I can't guarantee anything. Please keep the comments coming!**

**Joutsensydn: Thank you for your compliments on my flashbacks. I don't know if this stuff would ever happen in real life (Lily being "on loan") but I thought it would be better for now to base the story in a place where I'm more familiar with than try to put it in Philadelphia, which I know nothing about.**

**Snow Ivy: Thank you, I hope I can keep up with the quality of the story and not put forth a crappy ending. I confess I like the character of Geoffrey as well…he just seems to have that little something. And thanks for your suggestion. I have an idea about that…I don't know how successful it would be if I tried to put a bit of humour in there, but I guess we'll have to wait and see! **

**Also a big thank you to TatiakaTrinity and MaryRose for their comments! **


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